For the last few months Faustus have been sifting through publications and journals of the nineteenth Century Lancashire Cotton Famine period, as part of a project based at the University of Exeter to archive, preserve, and rehabilitate the poetry of this distressing chapter of working-class history. Having set some of the texts to new music, Faustus are delighted to announce that the first track, Cotton Lords, will be debuted on their March tour.
Prior to their March tour Benji, Paul and Saul will again form the core band in The Transports (Guardian *****), the revival and reworking of Peter Bellamy’s ballad opera which proved a sensation in 2017 and played to full houses across the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS1r3hPGDAI
Shortly after their March UK tour Faustus will debut at the National Folk Festival in Australia.
Death and Other Animals received the 2017 German Critics Award (Schallplatenkritik Bestenliste) in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter/World Music category.
During 2016 the band were Artists in Residence at Halsway Manor, National Centre for the Folk Arts, in the Quantock Hills of Somerset, where they had unlimited access to the Manor’s extensive library, and where Death and Other Animals was recorded. Four songs unique to Halsway’s little-known Ruth Tongue archive, lyrics by Bill Caddick and Olivia McCannon, a Chartist poem, and the band’s own indomitable settings of traditional texts comprise Death and Other Animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NwbrffaB1E
The band have also turned to pastures new for release and production, striking up a deal with German-based label, Westpark Music, and bringing in Rupert Christie as producer. With past production work including Bellowhead, Tom Baxter, Jessie J and Fisherman’s Friends, Rupert and Faustus was a match made in heaven as he and the band hit it off incredibly well.
Nominated in the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Faustus are three of the leading lights of their generation: Benji Kirkpatrick (Seth Lakeman Band, Bellowhead), Saul Rose (Waterson:Carthy, Whapweazel) and Paul Sartin (Bellowhead, Belshazzar’s Feast). Rooted deeply in the English tradition, in 2007 they received a seventy fifth Anniversary Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
For further information, and to purchase tickets, click here.